Thai flooding impact on tech companies, suppliers

Oct. 12: Seagate Technology PLC, which makes hard drives, says its factories in Thailand have been operational, but it may have difficulty making hard drives because of constraints in getting parts.

Oct. 17: Computer hard drive maker Western Digital Corp. says flooding damage to its Thailand locations will have a significant impact on its operations and its ability to meet customer demand the rest of the year.

Oct. 18: Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says he is "virtually certain there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives." Cook warns that Apple's Mac lines will be most affected.

Oct. 24: Fabrinet, which provides services and parts for optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing companies, says it expects its Chokchai plants to remain shuttered through the rest of the quarter.

Emcore Corp., which makes semiconductor-based components for broadband, fiber optic, solar and other markets, says flooding penetrated a contractor's production facility over the weekend, submerging some equipment. Emcore says it will have trouble meeting customer demand for fiber optic products, but it's ramping up production in China and other areas. The company's solar division wasn't affected by the floods.

Oct. 26: Computer networking equipment maker Digi International Inc. says flooding inundated an unnamed contract manufacturer, leaving it unclear when it can resume working with Digi. Digi says it has halted all of its Thailand-based operations as it reviews how it to meet existing business requirements by working with other contract manufacturers or using its own manufacturing operation in the U.S. and inventory on hand.

Semiconductor maker LSI Corp. warns that supply-chain uncertainties because of the flooding may weigh on fourth-quarter results.

Nov. 1: JDS Uniphase Corp., which makes products for communications companies to test the quality of their networks, says it expects revenue in the current quarter to be reduced by $35 million to $45 million because of flooding. It says it has added employees in Thailand to help meet customer's needs.

Nov. 2: Lenovo Group Ltd., a leading maker of personal computers, says flooding in Thailand will likely impact the global supply of hard disk drives. It says it will "monitor the situation closely and take necessary actions to mitigate the potential impact."

Nov. 9: Cisco Systems Inc. says it is closely watching fallout from the flooding, particular for the effect on disk drives for its set-top boxes and on its optical-networking products. It says it has contingency plans in place to minimize any impact and has factored that into forecasts, but it expects things won't return to normal for several quarters.

Nov. 10: Research group IDC says the disaster's real effect isn't expected to hit makers of personal computers until early next year. In a worst-case scenario, PC shipments could drop more than 20 percent from previous forecasts in the first quarter of 2012. IDC says many of the personal computers that will be sold during the holiday season have already been produced or can be made with existing supplies of hard drives, limiting disruptions from the flooding.